> some information services were still able to stay online and available
I’m in Valencia, Spain.
The mobile internet connectivity here during the power outage was very unstable.
Cellular phone signal strength was also very very low for the majority of the time.
Even sending SMS or WhatsApp messages would not work most of the day, because of just how unusable mobile connection was for me and my girlfriend and our families here.
And I only managed to load news pages, national or foreign, a few times during the hours of outage, to try and get some information on what cause, how widespread, and how long it would probably take to restore power.
On the plus side I did get to try my little solar panel for the first time to try and charge one of my power banks using solar power. And it did seem to get some juice out of it.
The biggest problems of all from my pov was:
- We live on the 8th floor with a 1 year-old baby. Going 8 floors of stairs with the stroller was not fun.
- All my money is electronic, except from one 50 euro bill I had in my wallet. How was I going to pay for water and food if this outage would go on.
- What’s going on? How bad is it? How long is it going to last? Very unstable mobile internet as mentioned.
In the end we ended up staying outside going for a walk and meeting up with my mother a bit and then me and my girlfriend and our baby going to the beach and sitting there until late. Finally when we came home lights were starting to come back on. And the elevator was working again too!
The next day the first thing I did was walk to the nearest ATM and withdraw several hundred euros, and I bought a bunch of water. We don’t have a car, so I used one of my big bags with wheels to be able to bring more water home than usual.
Yes, one positive aspect of these types of events is that the hazing against the cash-first minority worldwide has ebbed slightly. Sweden seems to be backtracking from their cashless push due to the threat of Russian cyberattacks as well.
In related news, high-speed trains appear to have been sabotaged in Spain today, causing transportation chaos again. This happened while they have not been able to conclusively determine the cause of the blackout.
The plot thickens...or gets sidetracked, depending on what the truth turns out to be.
> - What’s going on? How bad is it? How long is it going to last? Very unstable mobile internet as mentioned.
Silly question but do you have AM or FM radio? When the lights went out in the northeast blackout of 2003 we turned to our cars to put on AM radio. Even after Hurricane Sandy my mother was without power for 3 weeks and she was running a battery powered radio.
I shudder to think of a future where moving information requires high performance digital electronics vs. a crystal radio set.
> The next day the first thing I did was walk to the nearest ATM and withdraw several hundred euros, and I bought a bunch of water.
That is a very good idea for everyone. Putting together an emergency supplies kit is what various European governments, and now also the European Commission, are beginning to officially recommend:
In Sweden we all get this. Saying you should have water, food, radio and cash and more so maybe Spain or EU needs this too :) Now do I have this, no. But we are further.
Did you try with HN? I remember a long time ago I was in a hotel with bad connectivity, and one of the few sites that loaded was HN (no images, almost no JS, ...). I was able to read the comments, but it was difficult to read most of the articles.
I work on the University, and there I recovered wired internet rather quickly probably due to backup generators. At home most routers stopped, some even took until the next day to be functional again.
As for mobile connectivity, the main issue was the congestion. The cell network didn't fail, usually, but in most places either your phone wasn't able to connect or had no internet. Too many people trying at the same time, I guess.
On the University on the other hand it worked perfectly. Maybe because it's a usual crowded place and there are more resources, but I think it was also because a lot of students (even teachers) went home, so those who stayed were mostly alone with a good internet...but less people to talk to.
I was in Spain during the blackout nearby Valencia. My phone had 3G data connectivity from 12:30 to 18:30 despite the outage. Same for the fiber signal, powering the modem&router with batteries allowed me to a working fiber connection for 4 hours.
Some neighbors with different mobile operators told me they did not have signal. It might be some operator had backup diesel generator that lasted 4 hours.
Not only the backup generator of that base station but the backup power of all the network hardware up to it. The base station could have outlasted some other parts that run out of diesel before it did and yet it did not have connectivity.
Of course not all Germans go for lunch at 12-1 but unless you are in retail or your team has decided 1-2 is better, or 30min is enough.. I think it's just a very good guess that it's 12-1 for most the people. If it was a real 50:50 split between 12-1 or 1-2 then it could look like a 2h break. Unsure, I can't read their data properly.
But they do? At least near us? Shops close from 1 ‘til 4, and are then open until 9pm. Some businesses like mechanics too - although offices tend to stick to the more widespread 9-5, with more lunch from 12:30 to 14:00.
It's one thing to have traffic data, presumably connected from some internet point or something, idk, I just assume that everything's monitored somewhere.
That one threw me off as well! As the other commentators mentioned: "Navigator.getBattery" in browsers is the culprit. "Luckily" it's not supported in Safari and Firefox.
I'm curious what was the situation with Spaniards and Portuguese people roaming elsewhere in the EU with their local phones, since roaming phones are usually patched through the home country telecoms. Did their experience differ significantly compared to their compatriots?
In my case, 2G/3G connections with a power outage from 12:30 PM to 14:20 PM in Bilbao. Calls barely worked and for the internet, being a doomed nerd I've juse used Lagrange under Android with Gopher and Gemini proxies to the web (News Waffle) in order to read the newspapers because our media outlets didn even fit the sites for the low bandwith, something North Americans are greatly doing with https://text.npr.org and https://lite.cnn.io
Some people even bought FM radio receivers en masse; because they work with batteries and the stations and repeaters are already set to use emergency generators.
Be aware that internet usage was pretty much impossible. Landline internet dropped soon after the outage even for those with UPS systems.
And 5G internet was completely unusable during the outage. All 3 major networks immediately switched to "Emergency calls only" status and allowed zero data. So doing analysis on it isn't very useful because most people had no access and only small packets made it through (favouring more simple services). It worked maybe 10 minutes every couple of hours and very limited.
I have an Iridium backup for emergency calls too. But no internet. And was thinking of getting Starlink but I don't want it anymore since musk going nazi and also the Spanish Government seems to have dropped a 9€ per month surcharge on it.
We awoke to power the next day, but mobile phone services only returned some hours later. Amazing how busy the banks were with people desperately seeking cash. Unfortunately the banks dont handle cash here now, and the ATMs were all offline.
The first few hours were scary, due to complete lack of information. I am not sure how people had internet access, seemed like all networks were down here. I dont follow any news (apart from HN) but from what people are saying locally, the cause is still unknown, which I guess means it can happen again at any time.
Any recommendations from preppers on a suitable portable radio? It would be nice next time to be able to distinguish rare draughty power line issues from possible start of WWIII.
Tecsun PL series is pretty much the modern version the old Grundig Yachtboy series.
I have a PL 330 as my 'is there anybody out there' armaggedon world radio receiver. I also sometimes use it just for kicks to hear radio from somewhere unreasonably far away from me.
You can find a lot of pros and cons across the different models in their offering with plenty of online discussion as well.
You want a portable shortwave radio with external antenna. Amazon shows them ~$30 which is about what they cost. If you get a fancy one they go 3-4 times as expensive. I have a radio shack grundig battery powered one and it works fine.
Look at reviews, I guess, or try and find an old grundig. I'm sure other people have other brands/models.
If I can remember the last decent one I was looking at I'll comment again, but hopefully this will set you on the right track.
Ah, yes, a flagged comment, because maybe some clueless idiots think the whole of Spain it's a paradisian beach in the Southern Mediterranean part and they didn't manage to research about the split work schedule affecting the whole country, even when the North and mountain/plains the temps can get below 0 in Winter with ease, so the whole siesta myth get crushed down.
No siesta, but:
- Lunch with the family. No phones, just the TV news.
- GMT+1 Timezone, so the sun's highest point it's at 13/14PM
.
Something similar happened in Ontario many years ago, it was out for like 7 days. The neighbours came outside and talked, and everyone spent a lot more time outdoors. Saw the stars, and people burned candles in the evening. I actually look fondly at it, and feel like everyone should experience this. Now in the back of my mind is this feeling of wanting to live in a world without modern technology. Take a time travel vacation to the 17th century.
>Germans take a 1 hour lunch from 12-1pm. Spaniards have a later lunch, starting around 1pm, and going on until 4 or 5pm. This could possibly be due to the tradition of afternoon siesta.
This is not only untrue, but I would argue it also borders on being defamatory, consciously or not. Lunch breaks are typically one to two hours long in Spain, not three to four hours long--that's ridiculous. What the author is describing there would better fit what we tend to do during weekends, where "sobremesa" (coffee and drinks after we're done with the main dishes) can admittedly get a bit out of hand, but absolutely not on working days.
They misunderstood "one or two-hour lunch anywhere between 1pm to 5pm" for "4-hour lunch from 1pm to 5pm". Same with France, people have a 1-hour lunch either from 12 to 1pm or from 1pm to 2pm, rarely a 2-hour lunch.
You are missing the fact that a lot of people in Spain, maybe the majority, do what’s called a “jornada partida”, which means that businesses close at around 1-2 pm and then reopen at around 5-6 pm. During that time people generally have lunch and maybe sleep.
Especially during the hotter months, the streets are practically empty.
That's a fair criticism. The data suggests that there are different breaks spread out over that 3-4 hour period, not one break of 3-4 hours. I've reworded it accordingly.
> Germans take a 1 hour lunch from 12-1pm. Spaniards have a later lunch, starting around 1pm, and going on until 4 or 5pm. This could possibly be due to the tradition of afternoon siesta.
NPR had a podcast episode (Planet Money maybe?) about how the EU was supposed to make it easier for firms to hire cross border and employees to move around. The idea was to be more like the United States.
Apparently, this didn't quite work out due to both language and cultural differences
Then, one of the guests says:
"Yes, there were some challenges. In fact, we ended up getting books with titles like: 'How to manage Spaniards if you are a German'"
I once heard a Danish head of a university say that they wanted more Swedes to come over and work because Danish workers tend to question orders more than Swedes do.
I have no idea if this is true, just sounded funny to me.
In offices it would usually be from ~14h to 15h or 15:30h. Open to the public, street-level, small businesses (let's say, a butcher, a small hardware store, a bakery...) usually close from 14h to 16h or 16:30h. They open till later than other countries, though, often till 20h or so. That can vary per region and the size of the city, of course.
tbh that's in mostly an exaggeration, specially among new gens who tend to do more quick lunchs and take-aways.
Even though we have lunch significantly later than the european average (I'd even say closer to 2pm or even up to 3pm rather than 1pm), something that somewhat awkwardly here I agree it's excessive, I doubt anyone (unless they're exploiting the cultural-difference thing and somehow it's working) stays until 5pm lunchin' midweek.
Perhaps it may only be applicable in the context of the weekend (when lots of gatherings at bars and tapa overdoses for who-knows-how much time happen), but overall for at least 5 out of 7 days a week that's an oversimplification.
codetrotter|10 months ago
I’m in Valencia, Spain.
The mobile internet connectivity here during the power outage was very unstable.
Cellular phone signal strength was also very very low for the majority of the time.
Even sending SMS or WhatsApp messages would not work most of the day, because of just how unusable mobile connection was for me and my girlfriend and our families here.
And I only managed to load news pages, national or foreign, a few times during the hours of outage, to try and get some information on what cause, how widespread, and how long it would probably take to restore power.
On the plus side I did get to try my little solar panel for the first time to try and charge one of my power banks using solar power. And it did seem to get some juice out of it.
The biggest problems of all from my pov was:
- We live on the 8th floor with a 1 year-old baby. Going 8 floors of stairs with the stroller was not fun.
- All my money is electronic, except from one 50 euro bill I had in my wallet. How was I going to pay for water and food if this outage would go on.
- What’s going on? How bad is it? How long is it going to last? Very unstable mobile internet as mentioned.
In the end we ended up staying outside going for a walk and meeting up with my mother a bit and then me and my girlfriend and our baby going to the beach and sitting there until late. Finally when we came home lights were starting to come back on. And the elevator was working again too!
The next day the first thing I did was walk to the nearest ATM and withdraw several hundred euros, and I bought a bunch of water. We don’t have a car, so I used one of my big bags with wheels to be able to bring more water home than usual.
sillyfluke|10 months ago
Yes, one positive aspect of these types of events is that the hazing against the cash-first minority worldwide has ebbed slightly. Sweden seems to be backtracking from their cashless push due to the threat of Russian cyberattacks as well.
In related news, high-speed trains appear to have been sabotaged in Spain today, causing transportation chaos again. This happened while they have not been able to conclusively determine the cause of the blackout.
The plot thickens...or gets sidetracked, depending on what the truth turns out to be.
MisterTea|10 months ago
Silly question but do you have AM or FM radio? When the lights went out in the northeast blackout of 2003 we turned to our cars to put on AM radio. Even after Hurricane Sandy my mother was without power for 3 weeks and she was running a battery powered radio.
I shudder to think of a future where moving information requires high performance digital electronics vs. a crystal radio set.
prof-dr-ir|10 months ago
That is a very good idea for everyone. Putting together an emergency supplies kit is what various European governments, and now also the European Commission, are beginning to officially recommend:
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/03/26/brussels-ask-e...
> What’s going on? How bad is it? How long is it going to last?
I think some governments suggest that people buy a battery-powered or hand crank radio to address exactly this issue.
rightbyte|10 months ago
I think this is a problem with https. I remember intermittent connectivity as way better before Google forced the issue.
And yes I like https. But it comes with drawbacks. E.g. no isp caching.
heraldgeezer|10 months ago
https://rib.msb.se/filer/pdf/30874.pdf
EU has started this a bit, we are waking up. EVROPA.
https://www.dw.com/en/european-union-response-disasters-war-...
gus_massa|10 months ago
Did you try with HN? I remember a long time ago I was in a hotel with bad connectivity, and one of the few sites that loaded was HN (no images, almost no JS, ...). I was able to read the comments, but it was difficult to read most of the articles.
bluesmoon|10 months ago
briandear|10 months ago
TrianguloY|10 months ago
As for mobile connectivity, the main issue was the congestion. The cell network didn't fail, usually, but in most places either your phone wasn't able to connect or had no internet. Too many people trying at the same time, I guess. On the University on the other hand it worked perfectly. Maybe because it's a usual crowded place and there are more resources, but I think it was also because a lot of students (even teachers) went home, so those who stayed were mostly alone with a good internet...but less people to talk to.
giorgioz|10 months ago
pmontra|10 months ago
dagi3d|10 months ago
It's "funny" how someone that is supposed to be so smart, can be so ignorant at the same time
wink|10 months ago
Of course not all Germans go for lunch at 12-1 but unless you are in retail or your team has decided 1-2 is better, or 30min is enough.. I think it's just a very good guess that it's 12-1 for most the people. If it was a real 50:50 split between 12-1 or 1-2 then it could look like a 2h break. Unsure, I can't read their data properly.
madaxe_again|10 months ago
myself248|10 months ago
But how do they know users' phone battery level?
scary-size|10 months ago
littlecranky67|10 months ago
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/g...
detaro|10 months ago
sillyfluke|10 months ago
anthk|10 months ago
Some people even bought FM radio receivers en masse; because they work with batteries and the stations and repeaters are already set to use emergency generators.
wkat4242|10 months ago
And 5G internet was completely unusable during the outage. All 3 major networks immediately switched to "Emergency calls only" status and allowed zero data. So doing analysis on it isn't very useful because most people had no access and only small packets made it through (favouring more simple services). It worked maybe 10 minutes every couple of hours and very limited.
I have an Iridium backup for emergency calls too. But no internet. And was thinking of getting Starlink but I don't want it anymore since musk going nazi and also the Spanish Government seems to have dropped a 9€ per month surcharge on it.
whitehexagon|10 months ago
The first few hours were scary, due to complete lack of information. I am not sure how people had internet access, seemed like all networks were down here. I dont follow any news (apart from HN) but from what people are saying locally, the cause is still unknown, which I guess means it can happen again at any time.
Any recommendations from preppers on a suitable portable radio? It would be nice next time to be able to distinguish rare draughty power line issues from possible start of WWIII.
DoingIsLearning|10 months ago
I have a PL 330 as my 'is there anybody out there' armaggedon world radio receiver. I also sometimes use it just for kicks to hear radio from somewhere unreasonably far away from me.
You can find a lot of pros and cons across the different models in their offering with plenty of online discussion as well.
genewitch|10 months ago
Look at reviews, I guess, or try and find an old grundig. I'm sure other people have other brands/models.
If I can remember the last decent one I was looking at I'll comment again, but hopefully this will set you on the right track.
onionisafruit|10 months ago
That’s crazy that their usage is that low. Not even one visitor?
anthk|10 months ago
No siesta, but:
- Lunch with the family. No phones, just the TV news.
- GMT+1 Timezone, so the sun's highest point it's at 13/14PM .
- Split work schedule because of the lunch
dukeofdoom|10 months ago
unknown|10 months ago
[deleted]
NooneAtAll3|10 months ago
Karawebnetwork|10 months ago
Funes-|10 months ago
This is not only untrue, but I would argue it also borders on being defamatory, consciously or not. Lunch breaks are typically one to two hours long in Spain, not three to four hours long--that's ridiculous. What the author is describing there would better fit what we tend to do during weekends, where "sobremesa" (coffee and drinks after we're done with the main dishes) can admittedly get a bit out of hand, but absolutely not on working days.
seszett|10 months ago
Symbiote|10 months ago
There's a misconception that Spanish people are 'lazy' for their late lunches, but they're eating lunch at roughly the same local solar time.
snkzxbs|10 months ago
Especially during the hotter months, the streets are practically empty.
kranke155|10 months ago
bluesmoon|10 months ago
echelon|10 months ago
Wow.
alexpotato|10 months ago
NPR had a podcast episode (Planet Money maybe?) about how the EU was supposed to make it easier for firms to hire cross border and employees to move around. The idea was to be more like the United States.
Apparently, this didn't quite work out due to both language and cultural differences
Then, one of the guests says:
"Yes, there were some challenges. In fact, we ended up getting books with titles like: 'How to manage Spaniards if you are a German'"
bryanlarsen|10 months ago
INTPenis|10 months ago
I have no idea if this is true, just sounded funny to me.
retSava|10 months ago
tecleandor|10 months ago
metronomer|10 months ago
charliebwrites|10 months ago
So wait when do they get work done? Do they just work later into the night?
unknown|10 months ago
[deleted]
anthk|10 months ago
[deleted]
Havoc|10 months ago
[deleted]
lopkeny12ko|10 months ago
amelius|10 months ago
Thaxll|10 months ago